Black License Plate Mania In Beijing Part 2

Welcome to Black License Plate Mania In Beijing, where we look at cars with black license plates in the Chinese capital. On the first picture the famous Jaguar XJ12 with 京A·03333.

BMW 750 Li with 京A·27777.

Black license plates were issued to foreign owned companies from the 1980’s to the mid 00’s. These companies could buy a car locally, or import one. There were no limits on the number of cars, or on price, or engine type.

In the old days black-plated cars had some privileges comparable to diplomatic cars; no police officer would dare to stop them and they could basically park wherever they wanted without fear of a fine.

Nowadays, a black-plated car is counted just like all the others. The government does not issue new black plates anymore but those who have one can keep it until eternity.

Volvo S80 T6 with 京A·39283.

The rules concerning selling a black-license plate car have changed over the years.

Under the old system: when you had a black license car and you sold it, the plate went with the car. If you bought a new car and scrapped the old one, you could ‘take’ the black plate to the new car.

Under the current system: if you have a black license car and you sell it, the license plate stays with you. But if you then buy a new car, you have to exchange the black license plate for a blue plate with the same number.

This is how it is in Beijing, but rules may differ per city.

Chery Cowin with 京A·37963.

The number system was very simple: the very first black plate car got 京A·00001, the next one 京A·00002, and so on until the government stopped issuing black plates. The early ones, preferably with the original car attached to it, are highly sought after by collectors. The character 京 (jing) is short for Beijing.

In southern China especially, the black-license plate system was used for all sorts of semi-illegal practices. Handy entrepreneurs would set up a bogus foreign-owned company, import cars, and sell them on again.

This was very profitable because these cars were not subjected to China’s famously heavy import taxes, which could be up to 120% in those days. Naturally, the more expensive the car the fatter the profit. So these ‘companies’ imported all sorts of high-end sedans, and even Porsches and Ferrari’s. I will look at some of these vehicles in a later article.